


The Things We Saw (In Each Other)

by halcyon_autumn



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/F, Fluff, Garreg Mach Monastery (Fire Emblem), Pre-Timeskip | Academy Phase (Fire Emblem: Three Houses)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-03
Updated: 2021-02-03
Packaged: 2021-03-15 08:55:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,672
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29186640
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/halcyon_autumn/pseuds/halcyon_autumn
Summary: Annette has been desperate for someone to visit the Garreg Mach market with her, and Ingrid seems like the perfect candidate.Written for the Annette Rarepair Week prompt "Sweets."
Relationships: Annette Fantine Dominic/Ingrid Brandl Galatea
Comments: 8
Kudos: 19





	The Things We Saw (In Each Other)

Garreg Mach didn’t sleep in on weekends. The monastery rose with the sun, and the marketplace rose with the monastery. It was, in Annette’s opinion, the best time to do any shopping. Shopkeepers called the loudest for their wares, the blacksmith swung her hammer with the most intensity, and bakers brought out their freshest food. The entire space hummed with energy and enthusiasm for the coming day, and Annette loved to be a part of it.

Unfortunately, most of her friends did _not_ enjoy waking up early on the weekends. Mercedes loved to shop with her, but she didn’t like to wake up so early. Dedue said he had “other tasks to attend to,” which Annette was pretty sure just meant ‘sleeping.’ Ashe blushed and stammered until she took pity on him and told him that he didn’t have to go. It would have been nice to have someone with her to explore the marketplace, but she told herself firmly that it didn’t matter and she could go by herself.

But there was no denying her joy the evening in the dining hall when Sylvain complained that Ingrid was forever waking up at the “asscrack of dawn.”

“You wake up early?” Annette asked, eyes going wide. “Even on the weekends?”

Ingrid looked up from her bowl of food. “Well, I wake up early on weekdays, and it’s better to keep a consistent schedule. Plus I like to get things done first thing and - why are you looking at me like that?”

Annette leaned over the table and seized Ingrid’s hands. “ _Do you want to go to the marketplace with me on Saturday?”_

Ingrid blinked. “Um. Well, I -”

“Just window shopping,” Annette said quickly. In her exhilaration, she’d nearly forgotten that Ingrid had grown up without much money. The _last_ thing she wanted to do was make Ingrid uncomfortable. “It’s not as much about buying things as just being in the same space where everything is happening.” 

Ingrid looked slightly confused. Had Annette been too excitable? Did Ingrid think it was stupid to be so enthusiastic about something as minor as window shopping?

But then Ingrid nodded, and the panic in Annette’s chest eased. “Sure. That sounds nice.”

“How lovely!” Dimitri said, beaming for some reason. “I think that will be very nice for the both of you.”

Ingrid was now _blushing,_ which set off an entire new series of worries for Annette. Had she made her uncomfortable somehow? Had she not been sensitive enough to her financial situation?

“Sounds good,” Sylvain said firmly, and deftly changed the direction of the conversation to the last fight he’d overheard between Manuela and Hanneman. Annette couldn’t shake the sense that she’d done something wrong.

“Please don’t feel like you have to come,” she told Ingrid as they walked back to their dorms. “I know I can be really excited about things, but -”

“I want to come,” Ingrid said immediately. “I mean - I can’t buy anything, but you’re so excited and I always thought the market was just sort of….practical? I think it would be interesting to see it the way you do.”

Annette was pretty sure she was the one blushing now. “Oh! Okay! That sounds great!”

She was used to people complimenting her work ethic and sometimes her cheerful personality. But no one had ever told her that they wanted to see the world the way that she did, and the warmth of that compliment was still burning inside of her when she woke up before dawn on Saturday morning. Even better, Ingrid was already waiting in the hallway, and she grinned the moment she saw Annette. “You ready?”

Annette beamed. “Yes!”

As they approached the market, wild fear surged through Annette that she’d overstated how wonderful the market was in the morning. It was such a silly thing to romanticize something so commonplace as a bunch of shops and stalls. But Ingrid was taking everything in with an assessing gaze, fully invested in the world around them. It eased the tension in Annette’s chest.

“Can you describe it to me?” Ingrid asked. Annette had never heard her sound so shy. “I want to see it like you do.”

Annette’s chest went warm again. “Okay, first you have to close your eyes.”

Ingrid blinked in surprise, but she obediently shut her eyes. 

Annette looked out over the marketplace. “Okay, list off all the sounds you can hear.”

“The blacksmith at her anvil,” Ingrid said, and Annette smiled. Ingrid _would_ notice the sound of weapons and armor being created first. “People talking. Uh, the sound of people walking around.”

“Listen more closely.” Annette took Ingrid’s hand and tugged her down onto the steps. “Try to pick out specific conversations.”

Ingrid’s forehead wrinkled as she settled down beside Annette, eyes still closed. “I can hear a merchant yelling about his wares from the south. There’s another yelling about his wares from the north. They aren’t usually so loud.”

“Yes!” Annette grinned. “They yell louder in the mornings than they do during the day. I think they’re trying to drown each other out because they have a longstanding feud. Everyday they try to outdo each other. But then they eventually settle into peace around noon - and the rivalry starts up the next day!”

Ingrid laughed, and Annette laughed too. She was still holding Ingrid’s hand. 

“I hear birdsong too.” Ingrid’s head was tilted, her eyes closed. “You can’t really hear them if you come later in the day. There’s too many people.”

Annette nodded, then realized Ingrid couldn’t see her. “I think they’re singing each other little good morning songs. It’s sweet. And we haven’t even gotten started on the _smells._ ”

“Meat,” Ingrid said immediately. “I smell meat cooking. Beef skewers, prepared with spices found in western Leicester.”

Well Annette had never noticed _that_ detail. “You can tell just from the smell?”

Ingrid nodded vigorously. “Western Leicester likes their meat a bit spicier than the eastern half. I guess it could be from Adrestia, but they normally incorporate some seasonings from Brigid too. And there’s also -” she trailed off. “Sorry, I just like food.”

“That’s great!” Annette couldn’t imagine why Ingrid was embarrassed. “Keep going! What else?”

“Mhhm, there’s Cheese Gratin cooking somewhere too - oh, they used brionac cheese instead of gautier cheese. I had it made that way once in Fhirdiad. I’ve never forgotten it. Hmm, and I can smell a bakery too.”

“A bakery?” Annette dragged Ingrid forward, off the steps and into the market proper. “We have to find it.”

“Why?” Ingrid asked as Annette swerved to avoid crashing into a barrel. “Isn’t there always someone baking?”

“There _was,”_ Annette said. “But the bakery just disappeared one day. If they’re back we _have to find them._ They make these little chocolate croissants that are amazing. They’re just like the ones back in Dominic.”

Still holding Ingrid’s hand, Annette dragged her past stalls of shining rings and colorful scarves, vendors hawking strange fruits and familiar weapons. She only tripped once, and Ingrid caught her immediately. It was incredibly distracting to find herself suddenly in Ingrid’s arms instead of face down in the dirt, and for a moment they stared directly into each other’s wide eyes.

“Thanks,” Annette whispered. Ingrid’s arms around her were distractingly well-sculpted from all that training.

Ingrid swallowed. “You’re welcome.”

And then they were running again, laughing like children as they dashed through the maze of stalls, their hands still linked together. Brown dirt caked the bottom of Annette’s skirts and her hair was starting to come loose, but she couldn’t find it in herself to care. Finding the bakery was such a small thing, but laughing and running with Ingrid made it feel like a grand adventure. They were both buoyed up and along in the joy of the moment, heedless of the strangers that they ran past, until finally, _finally,_ Annette skidded to a stop. Ingrid nearly crashed into her. “There it is!” she shouted.

In front of them was a small stall with a brightly colored yellow awning and a cheery little bakery sign with painted sunflowers. Delicate macaroons were stacked on top of each other next to miniature fruit tarts. Annette could smell fresh herbs, the warm encompassing scent of bread, the crisp sweetness of sugar and - 

“Chocolate,” Annette said out loud. There, on the left side of the stall, was a plate of the sweet chocolate croissants that Annette had been thinking about for months. “There they are,” she whispered reverently to Ingrid. “Can - can I buy you one? I don’t want to make you uncomfortable, I just - the way you feel about meat is the way I feel about sweet things. They’re _so_ good, Ingrid, and I want you to experience it at least once, and I’m really sorry if I’m overstepping or -”

“Yes,” Ingrid said. “Yes, you can buy me one.”

Annette hugged her, which was perhaps an overreaction, but she was still riding high from the elation of finding the bakery again. And, if she was honest with herself, some of that elation was coming from the look of delight on Ingrid’s face, and how warm her hand had felt in Annette’s own.

The bakery owner grinned when she asked for two of his best chocolate croissants. And Ingrid grinned when she took the first bite, her eyes going a little wide and then fluttering closed. “You were right. This is incredible.”

“They’re _so_ good,” Annette said. “And it’s nice to be able to share them with someone. They sell out fast if you don’t get them early in the morning, and no one would ever come along with me.”

“I’m glad you asked me to come,” Ingrid said. “I liked spending time with you.”

Annette gathered up all of her courage and thought of every moment that Ingrid had smiled that morning, of every time their hands had fit together. “And I liked spending time with you! Maybe - maybe we could do it again?”

Ingrid took her hand. “I’d like that too.”

**Author's Note:**

> Love my two favorite girls together :)
> 
> Also feel free to ask my about my rambling headcanon about Western Faerghus being its own country pre-seiros, and while it was originally conquored by the empire and then became part of Faerghus, still retains aspects of its own culture (essentially similar to fantasy France) and that's part of the reason we see French sounding names across Faerghus despite the country having lots of Welsh influences in its name conventions.
> 
> .....and with that, feel free to [follow me on twitter](https://twitter.com/halcyon_autumn) for fic updates and fire emblem ramblings. 
> 
> Also BIG thank you to Mish for giving this fic a title.


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